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User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

  • Downloads：3345
  • Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date：2021-03-12 03:18:47
  • Update Date：2025-09-06
  • Status：finish
  • Author：Jeff Patton
  • ISBN：1491904909
  • Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle
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Summary

How do you build a product that delights users？ You must first know who your users are and how they plan to use what you're building。 With this practical book， you'll explore the often-misunderstood practice of user story mapping， and learn how it can help keep your team stay focused on users and their experience throughout the development process。

You and your team will learn that user stories aren't a way to write better specifications， but a way to organize and have better conversations。 This book will help you understand what kinds of conversations you should be having， when to have them， and what to keep track of when you do。 Learn the key concepts used to create a great story map。 Understand how user stories really work， and how to make good use of them in agile and lean projects。 Examine the nuts and bolts of managing stories through the development cycle。 Use strategies that help you continue to learn before and after the product's release to customers and users

User Story Mapping is ideal for agile and lean software development team members， product managers and UX practitioners in commercial product companies， and business analysts and project managers in IT organizations—whether you're new to this approach or want to understand more about it。

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Reviews

Oliver ，

I can understand the criticism with the high number of pages， certainly fewer trees could have been felled for this book。 Nevertheless， I think it's good that the content goes beyond the pure method and that it doesn’t remain unmentioned where the individual ideas originate from。 User Story Mapping itself is a very interesting method and for me it forms the pivot between interviews and personae on the one side and usability tests on the other。 A lot of thoughts can also be found in Lean Startup I can understand the criticism with the high number of pages， certainly fewer trees could have been felled for this book。 Nevertheless， I think it's good that the content goes beyond the pure method and that it doesn’t remain unmentioned where the individual ideas originate from。 User Story Mapping itself is a very interesting method and for me it forms the pivot between interviews and personae on the one side and usability tests on the other。 A lot of thoughts can also be found in Lean Startup which is not surprising when they write about "our friend Jeff Patton" there。 I find that the relaxed style of writing is very refreshing and see no reason why you can't smile when reading about business。 。。。more

Tibor Konig ，

Ismét egy fontos szakkönyv， amit eddig elsősorban kézikönyvként használtam （azaz csemegéztem belőle az adott kontextusban megfelelőnek tűnő dolgokat）， de most elejétől végéig elolvastam （és egyébként gondosan ki is jegyzeteltem）。A User Story Mapping egy rendkívül hasznos agilis módszertan， remekül beilleszthető más keretrendszerekbe （pl。 a Scrumba）， és erősen vizuális megközelítésmódja miatt sokféle célközönség esetén használható。 A módszertant ismertető könyv jól van felépítve， érthető， könnyed Ismét egy fontos szakkönyv， amit eddig elsősorban kézikönyvként használtam （azaz csemegéztem belőle az adott kontextusban megfelelőnek tűnő dolgokat）， de most elejétől végéig elolvastam （és egyébként gondosan ki is jegyzeteltem）。A User Story Mapping egy rendkívül hasznos agilis módszertan， remekül beilleszthető más keretrendszerekbe （pl。 a Scrumba）， és erősen vizuális megközelítésmódja miatt sokféle célközönség esetén használható。 A módszertant ismertető könyv jól van felépítve， érthető， könnyed， de nem felületes。 Nagyon tetszett benne， hogy rengeteg példát sorolt fel， méghozzá azoknak a szavaival， akik ezeket megtapasztalták。Akkor miért csak négy csillag？ Az illusztrációk mérete miatt。 A könyv kicsi， a rajzok， diagramok， ritkábban képernyőképek viszont néha elég részletesek， és egyszerűen kivehetetlenek。 Kár ezért！ 。。。more

Aleksandar Cubrinoski ，

Important differences between strong and weak product teams， plan to learn faster having the big picture in mind， plan to finish on time， telling better stories， rock breaking and a lot of other advices regarding the good user story mapping。

Mehrad Karamlou ，

Lots of details and some good relevant processes！

Nikita Sushkov ，

Useful and too broad for the topic selected。

Drew Noble ，

This book would be great for someone who doesn’t work in tech and isn’t familiar with facilitating groups of stakeholder conversations。 If you do work in tech already you might be waiting for a bit of knowledge that you didn’t have already when you read this book。 User story mapping is very easy to do and only takes about one page of reading to understand it。 The fact that this is a book means you can skim a lot and still get the idea。 I think I was waiting for some kind of major insight on how This book would be great for someone who doesn’t work in tech and isn’t familiar with facilitating groups of stakeholder conversations。 If you do work in tech already you might be waiting for a bit of knowledge that you didn’t have already when you read this book。 User story mapping is very easy to do and only takes about one page of reading to understand it。 The fact that this is a book means you can skim a lot and still get the idea。 I think I was waiting for some kind of major insight on how to understand customers- nope。 。。。more

Agustin ，

A great book to learn about why and how we should do User Story Mapping。 Many real examples were Jeff Patton helped teams all over the globe in diverse situations。 Enjoyable and easy reading book。

Nestor Jimenez ，

A must-read for any Product Manager or facilitator or anyone involved in delivering a product。

Shawn ，

Great beginning， mediocre middle， fluff fills the end。 The book has a dated feeling。 What was once groundbreaking ideas of delivering value over features no longer needs 100 pages of explanation。 I love the technique of story mapping described in the first five chapters， the remaining thirteen chapters added very little。

Christoph Kappel ，

Actually I was interested how to write better user stories and people suggested to use this one - after I've already bought a copy though。 ;） It started with lots of basics about the whole mapping stories and provided plenty of insights why and how to do。 Later on， a more thorough walk through the whole MVP idea and how to really do it， which really helped me to get different view on the whole thing。So if you really want dive deeper into the story mapping， want to know why a story is called a st Actually I was interested how to write better user stories and people suggested to use this one - after I've already bought a copy though。 ;） It started with lots of basics about the whole mapping stories and provided plenty of insights why and how to do。 Later on， a more thorough walk through the whole MVP idea and how to really do it， which really helped me to get different view on the whole thing。So if you really want dive deeper into the story mapping， want to know why a story is called a story and how all those maps and mappings work - grab your own copy。 。。。more

Dominykas Punis ，

One of the best books on agile software discovery and delivery。 I wish I've read it years ago， it has filled quite a few gaps。 One thing that could be misleading is its title - this book is about so much more than story mapping （while it is at a centre of it）。 It's about discovering your user， understanding their problems and building solutions that are just enough to fulfil their needs。 A must read for anyone in the world of software。 One of the best books on agile software discovery and delivery。 I wish I've read it years ago， it has filled quite a few gaps。 One thing that could be misleading is its title - this book is about so much more than story mapping （while it is at a centre of it）。 It's about discovering your user， understanding their problems and building solutions that are just enough to fulfil their needs。 A must read for anyone in the world of software。 。。。more

Timon Ruban ，

After reading a book like Essential Scrum， I ended up with some solid agile principles and lots of vocabulary （like user stories， epics， product backlogs etc。） being juggled at almost every startup in existence today。 But it also left me with a lot of questions。 How large should my stories be？ What about epics？ How much details should I be noting down in a story？ Who should be writing user stories in the first place？ And there was one contradiction that always bothered me: stories are supposed t After reading a book like Essential Scrum， I ended up with some solid agile principles and lots of vocabulary （like user stories， epics， product backlogs etc。） being juggled at almost every startup in existence today。 But it also left me with a lot of questions。 How large should my stories be？ What about epics？ How much details should I be noting down in a story？ Who should be writing user stories in the first place？ And there was one contradiction that always bothered me: stories are supposed to focus on the users' needs and progress they want to make。 At the same time you are supposed to make the stories as small and specific as possible， so that your engineers can finish a unit of work in a matter of days。 How is that possible without losing sight of the big picture？Turns out， the contradiction quickly disappears if you rethink the label "story"。Patton's book comes with one simple message: stories are all about the conversations you need to have to create shared understanding！ To go from a vague idea to something small and specific you can build， you will have to have many conversations with different people about the who， what and why of what you want to build。 But the required level of detail of this who-what-and-why-conversations will vary。 Are you supposed to have a conversation about the outcomes your users want to achieve？ Yes。 Are you supposed to have a conversation about the edge cases and specifics of each error state of that one screen？ Also yes。 On a small tangent: I first read about a very related concept in Ray Dalio's Principles， where he raves about people like Bill Gates or Elon Musk that can navigate back and forth between the big picture and granular details in a single conversation。 In my very own experience， I find this intermixing of different abstraction levels to be much more common than Dalio makes it sound。 In fact， most people do it， but the problem is: it is often done unwittingly。 Calling it out and being mindful about when you are moving up and down different levels of detail， however， is much rarer and a valuable skill to keep a meeting from getting sidetracked。 To return to product development: you don't want to rely on having a team full of self-disciplined masterminds effortlessly navigating big picture and nitty-gritty details in the same meeting。 So， if you are responsible for architecting the product development process at your company: Do not rely on creating shared understanding at every level of detail in a single conversation。 Instead， be explicit about who should be having which conversation when and at what level of detail。 Thinking along these lines， greatly helped me to reduce my anxiety about whether I should be labeling a conversation （or its artifact） story， feature， epic or something else。 All in all， the book worked well for me as a complement to others like the aforementioned Essential Scrum， but also books like Inspired or Shape Up。 Its humor， unfortunately， did not always strike a chord with me。 But its prose is colloquial and where these other books shine in explaining the reasoning behind high-level product principles， User Story mapping shines in filling in the missing details of what applying those principles to your day-to-day work can look like。 。。。more

Kevin Kaiser ，

A little long and repetitive。 I recommend the Design Sprint book as a faster way to learn and practice these methods。

Jose Sanchez ，

Everything needed for agility and product design Some time ago I read this book， but in this second review I have enjoyed it more and i have collected the proposals with more accuracy。It is a pity that many of the proposals were understood as standards aNd that people are more focused on the how and not on the what。Anyway， Jeff is no to blame for the misinterpretation。

Katie ，

A practical and focused look at user stories: what purpose they serve， what they are， and how to construct them。 I appreciated the real-life examples and analogies throughout。

Magda Targoss ，

A very insightful book about processes which can support and ease software development。 It could have been shorter to get to the point quicker， without too many descriptions， though。 But that's just my preference A very insightful book about processes which can support and ease software development。 It could have been shorter to get to the point quicker， without too many descriptions， though。 But that's just my preference 。。。more

Jozef Michalovčik ，

I really enjoyed reading this book。 I wish most of the university text books were written in this funny （geek humor） and easy way to understand。 This was the studf i have been studying， but approach and methods were very different。 Book contains a lot of examples， real life situations and pictures- helps you bring to reality - how it works in professional companies。I found this book close， perhaps because I am professionally going through similar journey of SW development with huge focus on cust I really enjoyed reading this book。 I wish most of the university text books were written in this funny （geek humor） and easy way to understand。 This was the studf i have been studying， but approach and methods were very different。 Book contains a lot of examples， real life situations and pictures- helps you bring to reality - how it works in professional companies。I found this book close， perhaps because I am professionally going through similar journey of SW development with huge focus on customer， and customer journey。 Story。 We follow most of the agile methodology covered bu this books and it gave me some recommendations how to get even better。 “Writing perfect document is not a way to go。 Always can be misunderstood by someone。 Its never perfect。 Use that document/ story to have active conversation - driven by the need to understand each other。。。” very eye opening。 I kept sending screenshots to my team and recommended reading it to all of them！ 。。。more

Tu ，

Minimize the output， maximize the outcome。 You can always want to build more than you could。Very interesting reads about managing project life cycle with Agile by applying Story mapping。 Jeff also give his own concept about Agile artifacts and events which very helpful to everyone who is new to Agile。 The last chapters are a bit boring but overall it is a good read to me。

Doug Hanke ，

I really like how this book breaks down the software development process。 Breaking down stories， having people from all disciplines， figuring out what is really important。That being said， this book is about 25% longer than it needs to be and some of my coworkers found it really repetitive in parts。

Alexej Gerstmaier ，

Very relevant in practice， nice first principles oriented approach to the whole agile shebang。-One chapter praised the doctor patient relationship present in medicine and Patton postulated that software development should work akin to it。 That somewhat put me off; I think most general practitioners only have very superficial knowledge; I'd much prefer them just giving me the specific prescription that my research concluded that I need :-P Very relevant in practice， nice first principles oriented approach to the whole agile shebang。-One chapter praised the doctor patient relationship present in medicine and Patton postulated that software development should work akin to it。 That somewhat put me off; I think most general practitioners only have very superficial knowledge; I'd much prefer them just giving me the specific prescription that my research concluded that I need :-P 。。。more

Archyz ，

A good book if you want to try something new in relation to delivering better software products or projects in general。 It is good to read it whole from A to Z if you are new to this topic。 For me as a person， who has worked with user stories and in software projects， the book was bit too long， as the information could've fitted in max 50 pages。 That's why 4 stars - too long for people with experience in the field。 A good book if you want to try something new in relation to delivering better software products or projects in general。 It is good to read it whole from A to Z if you are new to this topic。 For me as a person， who has worked with user stories and in software projects， the book was bit too long， as the information could've fitted in max 50 pages。 That's why 4 stars - too long for people with experience in the field。 。。。more

Fabian ，

Very useful

Jen ，

Meh。。。

Saifuddin Merchant ，

Good introduction to the topic and a great start。 Does start to get repetitive towards the end。 Read 60% of the book and then abounded further reading。 Did not suite my style

Vitor Kneipp ，

Simply the book that got me a product manager job at a top tech company。You should get this book if you're an entrepreneur or business person with no tech background and wonder:- How much should I know about software to work with technology？- How the heck do I translate my product vision， business model or strategy into working software？- What does a tech/product team look like？- What other books might I read to go deeper？A brilliant journey awaits you at the other side。 Simply the book that got me a product manager job at a top tech company。You should get this book if you're an entrepreneur or business person with no tech background and wonder:- How much should I know about software to work with technology？- How the heck do I translate my product vision， business model or strategy into working software？- What does a tech/product team look like？- What other books might I read to go deeper？A brilliant journey awaits you at the other side。 。。。more

Paweł Bogdan ，

Mapowaniu historyjek użytkownika poświęcono 2 rozdziały na 19 i to opisując je mało szczegółowo。 Większa część książki to przejście przez cykl budkowy oprogramowania z naciskiem na wytłumaczenie konceptu user story， modelu lean， a także opportunity canvas i design thinking。 Mimo wszystko treść okazała się wartościowa i nie żałuję， że po nią sięgnąłem。Nie wiem dlaczego， ale bardzo ciężko czytało mi się tę książkę i nie mogłem utrzymać koncentracji przed dłuższy czas。 Ostatnie rozdziały wręcz prze Mapowaniu historyjek użytkownika poświęcono 2 rozdziały na 19 i to opisując je mało szczegółowo。 Większa część książki to przejście przez cykl budkowy oprogramowania z naciskiem na wytłumaczenie konceptu user story， modelu lean， a także opportunity canvas i design thinking。 Mimo wszystko treść okazała się wartościowa i nie żałuję， że po nią sięgnąłem。Nie wiem dlaczego， ale bardzo ciężko czytało mi się tę książkę i nie mogłem utrzymać koncentracji przed dłuższy czas。 Ostatnie rozdziały wręcz przewertowałem。 Wydaje mi się， że dużym problemem jest brak jakiejkolwiek harmonii w treści。 Panuje duży chaos。 Autor przerzuca czytelnika z tematu na temat， w zasadzie żadnym nie docierając do detali。 Dodatkowo roi się od nic nie wnoszących powtórzeń i "zapychaczy"。 Z tego powodu duży minus na ocenie。Świetnie że pojawiła się taka pozycja na rynku， aczkolwiek uważam， że nie było to do końca udane podejście。 Lepiej przeczytać kilka artykułów na medium ;） 。。。more

Nacho Bassino ，

I read this book late in my career， considering that I have already learned story maps “on the field”， and the book would not add much value。 While indeed， the story mapping activity is quite straightforward， the book covers a lot of the work “around” the maps that clarify the connections of the processes， especially between discovery and delivery。 Besides， Jeff’s writing style is very entertaining。

Jen ，

If you can avoid it， I would refrain from reading this cover to cover。 And， I'd skip the THREE forewards。 Yes， Jeff Patton is known in the Agile community。 Yes， that's one of the reasons you should pick this up。 But， suffice it to say there's a lot of intracommunity back patting。 Which is nice but not relevant for why I'm reading this book。 Overall， the idea behind Story Mapping is GOOD and it's simple。 I loved the exercise about mapping out your morning。 That leaves me almost wanting to bump it If you can avoid it， I would refrain from reading this cover to cover。 And， I'd skip the THREE forewards。 Yes， Jeff Patton is known in the Agile community。 Yes， that's one of the reasons you should pick this up。 But， suffice it to say there's a lot of intracommunity back patting。 Which is nice but not relevant for why I'm reading this book。 Overall， the idea behind Story Mapping is GOOD and it's simple。 I loved the exercise about mapping out your morning。 That leaves me almost wanting to bump it to a third star but ultimately， this needed a rigorous editing （you do not have to remind me ad nauseum about other parts of the book， thank you） and crisper chapters。 I've been in Agile for awhile so I knew I'd know some of it but it got pretty basic because he was trying to cover this for every level。 Then， he also brought in things like Lean Canvasses。 Are they useful？ Yeah， they are。 What does it have to do with Story Mapping？ There's a reeeeeeally thin thread he tried to draw there but it failed for me。 Definitely use this with your teams but don't feel compelled （unless you're a completionist like me） to read it the whole way through。 。。。more

Clay Siefken ，

This book is largely credited with popularizing the term and does a waaaaay better job of explaining the practice of generating user stories in context than the Cohn text on User Stories Applied。It's a quick read full of gorgeous illustrations and memorable metaphors。 The author is a kindred spirit for me。 We share a distaste for the misuse of user stories and bellyaching over terminology for stories based on size。I wish most story creation followed this pattern， as it makes sense and the practi This book is largely credited with popularizing the term and does a waaaaay better job of explaining the practice of generating user stories in context than the Cohn text on User Stories Applied。It's a quick read full of gorgeous illustrations and memorable metaphors。 The author is a kindred spirit for me。 We share a distaste for the misuse of user stories and bellyaching over terminology for stories based on size。I wish most story creation followed this pattern， as it makes sense and the practice's effectiveness follows naturally from human social and mental limitations 。。。more

Lizzy ，

The ideas are helpful and I agree with other reviewers that it just had too much fluff/repetition。I also had no idea how to take the ideas in this book and apply it in real life without the team size to back it up or an advocate to push these ideas through to the end。 In all of the discussions of what kinds of conversations to have there wasn't a mention （that I saw） of what it takes to coordinate that kind of work。 My assumption is that the author has a blind spot for the critical role someone The ideas are helpful and I agree with other reviewers that it just had too much fluff/repetition。I also had no idea how to take the ideas in this book and apply it in real life without the team size to back it up or an advocate to push these ideas through to the end。 In all of the discussions of what kinds of conversations to have there wasn't a mention （that I saw） of what it takes to coordinate that kind of work。 My assumption is that the author has a blind spot for the critical role someone like him plays when working with a team to collaborate on handling projects the way he advocates handling them in the book。So it was great to see all of these teams doing a wonderful job and at the same time， terribly demoralizing and made me feel like there's a utopia where stakeholders and developers are ok getting pulled into a hundred conversations in a week with the added time of prep work and cleanup from those discussions。Also， a lot of these concepts are great if you're in the same room。 I work remotely （even before COVID19） and am used to books ignoring the fact that not everyone works in the office。 。。。more

Reference

google book https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

hathitrust digital library https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?q1=User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product&field1=ocr&a=srchls&ft=ft&lmt=ft

The British Library https://bll01.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?query=any,contains,User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product&tab=LibraryCatalog&search_scope=Not_BL_Suppress&vid=44BL_INST:BLL01&lang=en&offset=0